Learning a lesson

I started writing these blogs as a means of recording my passage through this world. I want to leave a bit more than a granite marker with a date or two on it. I have been known to talk ,just a bit, and I see no reason death should silence me. My thoughts and memories are unique to me, as yours are to you. No one can tell the story quite like you.

As I write about the place where I grew up, I visit. I can see the places and smell the smells. I hear the voices of those who shared that world with me. Their words still echo in my mind. It is a strange sensation at times, seeming a distant memory, but somehow happening right now. It is my hope I share a piece of that with my readers.

In a strange twist, my wife and children have never been to that place. Well, that isn't exactly true, one son did visit there years ago. When I speak of that place it is foreign to them. It is nothing more than a place of myth and legend. It holds no memories for them. Maybe that is part of the reason I do write about it. A means of sharing those memories and keeping them alive. It is a sad thing to allow memories to die. 

Is it true that you don't know what you had until it is gone. One cannot fully appreciate that without living it. But each of us must travel the road as it unfolds before us. We can not know the final destination. The road behind us is familiar and therefore comforting. We know we can navigate that, we are here aren't we ? The road ahead is what needs our attention. It can be challenging to travel that road. We grow weary and just want to rest. That is what memories are for. Memories refresh us and give us strength. Will my memories serve others ? That is my hope. Somewhere in those memories lies truth. If I can but give you a glimpse of that I have done well. Todays facts are tomorrow's memories. Each memory is but a sub plot. The real story lies in the whole. Only by studying the collection can we know the lesson. And in a strange twist the teacher does not know the lesson being taught. Life itself is a lesson and each memory a syllabus. I believe the final reward comes with the revelation of the lesson. In one final twist of fate I won't be here to tell that story. I'll just leave my memories behind for future generations to ponder.